The Case
by Ranger75
Summary: Prepare for New Vegas, film noir style! This is not your average Fallout story- accompany Detective Maxwell Beck as he and the rest of the NVPD try to solve the murder of one of the largest figures on the strip!
1. The Asphalt Jungle

Detective Maxwell Beck pulled his trench coat closer around himself in an attempt to ward off the late-night rain. His partner, Jack Dobbins, was out of town on an investigation, so Max was the only one taking the call. The water sloshed into the gutters, breaking the silence. Beck moved quickly to the crime scene, The Tops casino, but it was still after midnight by the time he arrived. He flashed his NVPD badge and revolver to the sleepy-looking clerk, and walked onto the casino floor. Almost immediately, Chief Edmund Donnelly, accompanied by a man who introduced himself as Swank, came into view. Chief Donnelly addressed Beck quietly, "We've got a murder, thirteenth floor." Beck raised his eyebrows; the thirteenth floor was for high-rollers only, security there was supposed to be the tightest on the Strip. The Chief noticed Beck's reaction, "Wait, it gets better. This guy Swank says he can identify the victim as Benny- _the _Benny." Swank nodded, taking a long drag on a cigarette. "Shit's all messed up," Swank added gravely, "We've got minutes until the press is toe-tappin' all over this, they've got people in the hotel staff." Chief Donnelly raised his hand calmly, "We want to have something to tell them. This has to look like it's under control. Get in, find the facts, get out. I want this investigation well under way within the hour." Beck lit a cigarette of his own. "I'll get to work."

The crime scene was indeed part of the high-roller section; the contents of the room alone probably cost more than the house Beck had grown up in. He moved with swiftness, first photographing the scene in its entirety. Blood splatter was all over the bed sheets, the headboard, pooled around the body. The murder itself wasn't going to be simple to unravel: the body was beaten and bloodied, a puzzle in and of itself. Benny was covered in small cuts and lacerations, mainly focused around his face and arms. Beck noted that the wounds were standard form for defensive wounds, most likely sustained during a fight. He also noted three gunshot wounds, two to the stomach with evidence of heavy bleeding. The wounds were surrounded with powder burns to the skin, meaning the shots were point blank. The last gunshot wound was to the head, had no powder burn present, and seemed to be of a larger caliber than the other two. "Probably some sort of coup de grace," Maxwell mused. Benny was naked, his signature suit was semi-folded in one of his dresser drawers. Like most of the rest of the room, it appeared to have been rifled through. A safe, hidden behind a painting of a mountain, had been picked and emptied, Max found an empty 10mm round box left in it, otherwise it was empty. The last piece of evidence he found was a smear of lipstick on a pillowcase, partially covered by a blood smear. Beck compiled all of this onto his notepad, then walked outside of the suite and nodded to the patrolman on duty, who taped it off. What Beck had done was simply a once-over, the crime scene boys would have a more detailed analysis on his desk by the next morning. After the crime scene was taped off, the elevator in the hallway dinged and Chief Donnelly walked out, again accompanied by Swank. "Beck, you done here?" he said. Beck nodded. "Press is here, give it to us."

"Ok, here's what I think happened: this guy Benny had some broad up in his apartment, probably earlier tonight, I'm guessing around seven or eight. Anyway, she was probably after something, this doesn't look like a crime of passion. Looks like Benny wanted to get it on with the broad, but I couldn't find any evidence that they had sex. Anyway, the attacker- the dame- puts two into his stomach, but proceeds to fight him unarmed until he bleeds out. She then rips through the suite, obviously looking for something. She found a larger caliber gun in a safe, I'm thinking 10mm, then finished him with a shot to the back of the head. The perp has got to be a woman, I'm guessing attractive, but strong enough to hold her own in an extended firefight, maybe 5'8'', 5'9'', 140 lbs. or there abouts. We're looking for probably an ordinary person or small-time crook- this wasn't a pro job."

"Ring-a-ding," muttered Swank sadly, "I'll give this to the muckrakers, maybe it'll tide them over." He then entered the elevator and left. "So, Maxwell," said the Chief in hushed tones, "What do you need?"

"I'll need the security tapes from tonight and earlier this week. I want everyone with access to this room in interrogation by tomorrow, and ask if you can get Ephraim Flintock working the scene: his boys are the best in the business. That's all I need."

"Alright, Beck. I'll make it happen. You answer directly to me on this one. Get some sleep, I'll have Dobbins back in town by the time you're back in the office."

Beck nodded and donned his trench. _This is gonna be big. _


	2. The Woman in the Window

Beck had to beat his way through reporters the next day, the case had become front page material overnight. The only way it could be bigger is if someone killed Mr. House or President Kimball. _Now _that _would be a shitstorm, _thought Beck. He seated himself at his desk in the homicide section of the station and picked up his phone, dialing the number for police R&I- records and investigation. "Good morning, Detective Beck," The R&I operator said. "You have... 86 unread messages." _Good Lord, _Beck thought, _That must some sort of record. _"Operator, check for any from Ephraim Flintock, Detective Jack Dobbins, or Chief Donnelly."  
>"Yes, sir..." said the operator. "Sir, Detective Dobbins wants you to know that he'll be back at the precinct by early afternoon, and... Mr. Flintock wants to meet you back at the crime scene as soon as you're available."<br>"Thank you, ma'am," muttered Beck. He grabbed his badge and gun and went straight back to the crime scene, the Tops Casino.

He arrived and met Flintock at the entrance to the casino floor. Ephraim Flintock was a veteran of every NCR military conflict since the Battle of Hoover Dam, including the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, the border conflicts against the White Legs, and the drug sweep operations against the Fiends. No one could ever get him to admit it, but the rumor was that at one point his squad of Rangers took orders directly from Cassandra Moore. Needless to say, Mr. Flintock was a physically imposing man. "Mr. Beck! Top o' the morning!" he boomed from across the gambling floor. When Detective Beck neared, however, his tone became more serious. "We've got some new developments. Mighty interesting. Follow'er me, Mr. Beck." The pair strode over to the elevator, and were soon at the 13th floor apartment. The other crime scene investigators were just finishing boxing and labeling the evidence. The apartment looked exactly the same as it did the night before, a testament to the skill of Flintock and his men. Flintock waved off Beck's compliments, then strode towards a pair of New Vegas Patrolmen standing in front of a bookcase. He nodded at them, motioning for the pair to move aside. "Mr. Beck," he said, "We an' the boys almost missed this little hidey-hole: the bookcase is a false door. Hermetically sealed, as far as we can tell." He knocked on the bookcase to confirm his point, and indeed, it sounded hollow. "Or, rather, it should be sealed. We stayed good an' far away from it after we found it, but the seals had already been broken."

"Well," said Beck, "We'd best have a look inside, shouldn't we?" Flintock nodded, then gentured again to the patrolmen. One of then pulled a book on the adjacent case, and the hidden door swung open. Beck donned a pair of gloves, and snapped on his flashlight. As he stepped gingerly over the threshold of the hidden room, several lighting units snapped on. He lowered his flashlight and looked around. Fastened to the industrial concrete walls in six neat rows were glowing pre-war terminals, all of which were scrolling by large sets of numbers impossible fast. All of the terminals were joined together in several cord bundles, which connected into the body of what appeared to be the top half of a Securitron, embedded in the floor. Coolant gas seeped from the floor socket of the robot, and more numbers ran by the glowing, empty face of the Securitron. Flintock stepped into the chamber, and whistled. Beck strode over to a panel on the wall, flicking several switches. Immediately, one of the paneled rear walls retreated, letting the morning light seep through. The lights in the room dimmed in response. The pair then moved to the Securitron, but as soon as Beck opened the access panel, the bookcase slammed shut behind them, and the lights cut out. Suddenly, the face of the Securitron shuddered, then displayed the number 30, then 29, then 28. "Damn it!" roared Beck and Flintock together. Both understood the meaning: the Securitron was rigged to blow. "Grab the memory cards from the robot!" Beck ordered. After Flintock handed beck the cards, he grabbed one of the terminals, ripped it off if the wall, and flung it into the windows. Beck followed suit, but it took six terminals to break through the reinforced glass. 10, 9 ,8. Beck quickly grabbed a handful of the loose wiring and tore it out of the ground, giving half of his handful to Flintock. "Let's go!" roared Flintock, and both men dashed for the window. 3, 2, 1. Beck and Flintock flew a couple of yards out into space, hung for a moment, then caught as the wires pulled tight, catapulting them backwards and downwards, into and through the 12th floor's glass windows. As they crashed to the floor, they heard and felt the bomb detonate almost directly above them. The ceiling above them shuddered and gave way, showering them in electrical components and bits of tiling. Beck collected himself a few minutes later, and saw that Flintock had already pulled himself through the hole in the ceiling. "Whole room is gone!" he yelled down to Beck._ Damn it, _Beck thought as he slumped down against the wall.

The next day, Flintock and Beck met with Detective Dobbins outside of the crime lab. "The boys've finished breaking down those chips you guys got," Dobbins said in his laid-back manner. He had also served in the NCR military, but- like Flintock- didn't give out too many details as to his military career. When asked what he did, he was likely to answer anything from "shoveled shit" to "inspected the female uniforms", but anyone who had seen Gladius-scarred back would know otherwise. "I'll bring you guys up to speed on my investigation," he continued, "But first you've gotta see what was on this Securitron." As they walked into the tech lab, he mentioned, "Oh yeah, I got a message for you two about some patrolmen who were with you when the bomb went off- they'll be ok, but for some fractures and busted eardrums." Both Beck and Flintock breathed a sigh of relief. They themselves had been barely hurt, except for some minor cuts and scrapes. The lab technicians had connected the disassembled memory cores to a large screen, which was currently just showing static snow. "Alright, gentlemen," the lead technician began, "We've pulled some interesting footage from the last few days of the robot's operation, as well as some records we think are very important."  
>"Right," an assistant voiced, "The files we have here are some sort of attack plan. It's made of records going all the way back to the occupation plans the Legion had. It looks like it's all hypothetical, though. Like some kind of war game. It assumes that the soldiers don't need to eat, sleep, anything. Maybe it's how Benny kept entertained. Still, it's kind of scary. Taking control of New Vegas, Hoover Dam, everything from Nellis Air Force Base to Primm. Beyond that, it looks like he was running his entire operation on this thing. Every glass of booze, every cap spent is logged on this machine. He turned it into a mass of statistics, that's what took up most of the memory you recovered."<br>"Anyway," the lead assistant interjected, "The thing you'll be interested in is the security recordings. You can see here, three days ago, Benny working with the terminals." The men looked at the black and white screen, indeed Benny seemed obsessed with the machine, adding numbers and printing out endless figures. "He addressed it as 'Yes Man'. It looks like it uploaded it's personality drive somewhere else before you two got to him. But, the is where it gets interesting." The screen changed to a different segment, this one showing a smaller, faster-moving figure, obviously female. Before the camera blacked out, one of the technicians paused the feed. "Look there," he said, gesturing. The woman was barely dressed and covered in blood. She was the the one who set the bomb. "There's your suspect, right there." Beck immediately sprung into action. "Alright," he ordered, "I want to cross-reference her face with all other cameras in The Tops for at least two weeks prior to the murder. Also, try to track where that personality drive went." Bidding Ephriam goodbye, Beck and Dobbins strode to their office. "About my case in the boonies," started Dobbins, "Place called Goodsprings. That girl, the one who whacked Benny? She was the vic."

Beck stopped. "You said it was a murder. How does that work?"  
>"I've got witness statements from the whole town all sayin' the same thing. That broad took two in the head, laid in a grave for a few days, then got all patched up and walked out under her own power. No bullshit."<br>Beck stared in disbelief. "There's only one way that could have gone down. Grab your badge and gun, we're going to see Dr. Usanagi."

_Two Hours Later, New Vegas Medical Clinic_

"We're here to see the doctor," Dobbins told the receptionist, a pretty young blond Follower. "Very well," she replied, "Simply take a number and she'll be with you in a momen-" Dobbins flashed his badge. "I shouldn't have to ask again."  
>"Ok, no need to get pushy. Go on back," the receptionist huffed. As they walked, Beck gestured to the clinic rooms on either side of the hallway. "I had to spend a mountain of caps last time I was here. I caught a bullet in the Fiend drug sweeps." Following the complete destruction of Caesar's Legion and the political reform of the NCR, the newly appointed President Hsu decided to prove his mettle by ending the threat posed by the Fiends. In a three month campaign, NCR Rangers and the NVPD alike worked together to eliminate members of every link in the New Vegas drug chain. Buyers, sellers, middlemen, producers, everyone with a connection to the Fiends or their drug operations was systematically cut off and eliminated. Though bloody, the drug sweeps were very successful, and cemented the position of President Hsu. "Here's the doctor's office, right here," Dobbins said, nodding to a large room on their right. Beck knocked loudly on the open door, then walked inside. "Detectives?" Dr. Usanagi asked. "The precinct called and said what you needed. I recognized the girl as soon as I saw her picture. Very interesting case, hers was."<br>"How so?" asked Dobbins.  
>"Well, for starters, her only orders were for two high-end implants: one NEMEAN Sub-Dermal Armor, and one PHOENIX Monocyte Breeder."<br>"Damn," whistled Beck, "That's some heavy duty machinery. What else?"  
>"Hm... well, all of her bills were paid up front, in caps, by someone else." Beck looked suspicious. "I know, I know, but the money was good and I knew better than to ask questions. Besides, since the NCR military contracts have expired I've been having a hard time moving that section of my inventory."<br>"All right," interrupted Dobbins, "But it you don't want us digging any deeper into this clinic, I suggest you send all of the paperwork concerning this girl over to the precinct."  
>"Yes, yes," the doctor blustered, "You'll have it by tonight."<br>On the way out Dobbins turned to Beck, donning his fedora. "This is just what this city needed: a bulletproof homicidal dame on the loose." Beck laughed. "Yeah, just what we needed."

**Author's Note:** Expect a new story and lots more updates from me soon! As always, constructive criticism and positive feedback are greatly appreciated. Also bonus points to whomever can guess what the chapter titles are named after. :)

**ThreeCats-ina-Cellar: **I'm glad you enjoyedthe first chapter, hopefully the rest of the story measures up!

**Denvarte95: **Thanks for the positive review, I hope the longer chapter size suits you better!


End file.
